BharatPe, the financial services company for merchants, on Monday said it has raised Rs 50 crore ($7 million) in debt from Chennai-based Northern Arc Capital, a digital debt finance platform. This is the sixth round of debt financing for BharatPe in 2021. In January this year, the company had raised Rs 200 crore ($26 million) from Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital and Trifecta Capital, and raised additional capital from ICICI Bank and Axis Bank at a later stage.
BharatPe has been supporting credit requirements of its merchant partners and has emerged as one of the largest B2B fintech lenders in the country. Having already facilitated disbursals of over Rs 1,600 crore ($230 million) to more than 2 lakh merchants since the launch, BharatPe aims to disburse Rs 14,000 crore ($2 billion) in business loans by March 2023.
Northern Arc has directly disbursed over Rs 3,500 crore ($ 500 million) over the last financial year to MSMEs, households, financial institutions and mid-market corporates. It has also enabled flow of financing of over Rs 1,000 crore ($150 million) from reputed development financial institutions from across the world to underbanked small businesses and households, said a release by Northern Arc.
Suhail Sameer, group president, BharatPe, said “We have considerably ramped up our lending business in the last year and have set an ambitious target of facilitating disbursals to the tune of $1 billion to over 10 lakh merchants by the end of current fiscal (FY22). We are excited about our latest capital raise from Northern Arc and are confident that together we will be able to transform Bharat and serve the needs of the underserved businesses in India.”
BharatPe has raised close to $300 million in equity and debt till date. The company’s list of marquee investors includes Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, Amplo and Sequoia Capital.
Bama Balakrishnan, COO, Northern Arc, said: “Northern Arc has worked towards extending credit to like-minded organisations such as BharatPe that enable financial access to small businesses and merchants across the country. This transaction is a testament to Northern Arc’s commitment towards fulfilling the credit requirement of the under-banked segments of the country.”